Gemstone Caverns was great because i'm really luck and got to do things like turn 2 Drowner of Hope and turn 1 Stubborn Denial a Fatal Push on my Noble Hierarch, despite playing against a lot of Eldrazi Tron, I prefer Caverns over Ghost Quarter since that matchup is good, Dismember underperfomed a lot, I don't like it in the deck, match-ups:
Guy who played Toxic Deluge W
Eldrazi Tron W
Death's Shadow W
Eldrazi & Taxes L
Eldrazi Tron W
Eldrazi Tron W
UW Control L
Titan Shift L
Junk W
Merfolk W
Vengevine/Hollow One W
Eldrazi Tron W
Scapeshift L (huge missplay cost me the match*)
Eldrazi Tron L
BG Tron L
* Won game 1, forgot I had caverns on Humans g2, couldn't attack for 2 with Noble Hierarch since I used my blue mana to play another one and needed blue to Failure // Complain his Primeval Titan, he ended with 2 life, after that I kinda tilted
A question regarding Failure // Comply - it looks a bit too cute for my liking but Ive never played and would like to be convinced otherwise. Where do you find it has been most impactful? TitanShift it seems decent - perhaps against Ad Nauseum and Supreme Verdict?
Im currently playing the full set of Skyspawners and 2x Matter Reshaper - so a total of 26 creatures (4 dorks), 10 non-creature spells and 24 lands.
Life gain/burn options boil down to:
- Stubborn denial is prob the best counter - other counters are bit too expensive to be greatly impactful (but still side them in)
- Worship
- Blessed alliance
- Timely Reinforcements
- Thragtusk (usually a bit slow)
- Kitchen Finks
- Feed the Clan
- Life Goes On
- Chalice of the Void - im actually thinking of adding these to combat storm, burn, jeskai control, UW control, shadow
Truth be told I run natural state out of fear of blood moon for the most part - and maybe that's an error on my behalf. Chalice is def great against combo - its just hard for me to justify the slots - I wish Infect was a tier 1 deck and then I would play them for sure..
Fast combo is going to be tough for a deck like Bant Eldrazi - it's on the list of bad matchups together with decks like Valakut and Ad Nauseum (thankfully Ad Nauseum is out of the picture atm). Your GY hate cards will be your best strategy, along with counterspells and TKS disruption. Worship isnt bad either but they will bounce it - be prepared for that. Board in any and all 'sweepers' - such as EE or ratchet bomb if you play that to deal with goblin tokens. Also be weary of Blood Moon - there are many ways to lose to Storm - its just really rough for bant eldrazi..
Im still refining my list (as I haven't played Bant in ~2 months) - but I have Bant on MTGO and will fire off some leagues in the nearish future. Usually 3 leagues in a row is the maximum before I start to make poor decisions - don't OD on MTGO!
I used to play 4x Chalice when Infect was Tier 1 - I'm not totally convinced (but leaning that way) on Chalice but it def helps against Storm, other combo plus others (UW Control comes to mind) that Bant struggles against otherwise.
Against affinity, having the chalice on 0 is not by any means necessary, nor does it win you the game immediately, nor is it a completely dead topdeck later in the game.
Ok - if it works for you then more power to you.
Id suggest that chalice on zero will generally break the Affinity player - its pretty hard to lose if you get it down on the play turn 1. Most ppl would suggest that Chalice is only good against Affinity turn 1 on zero - thats certainly been my experience. Regardless of the above - Ill be playing chalice in Eldrazi moving forward as I think its necessary in the current meta (part of the reason the E-Tron is doing so well) - but def will play 4x copies..
How do you plan on having chalice on zero on the play against Affinity with just 2x Chalice? There is a reason why ppl say 4x Chalice or zero - although there are matchups where getting a late chalice is just fine - the majority of the time you want to slam it asap..
Im thinking of wheeling out Bant Eldrazi again after spending some months on UW control - are counterspells any good in Bant anymore? What sb cards are essential these days?
The new CoCo deck will be difficult for us as it was good when Eye was legal - this is just something you will have to accept. However, sb cards that are good:
Cage for CoCo/Chord
Pithing Needle (Naming Devoted Druid usually)
Rest in Peace
Surgical Extraction (Finks usually)
Dispel - for CoCo.Chord we dont really run this though - Stubborn denial (although erratically effective)
Explosives or any extra removal
Full disclosure - i'm not playing Bant Eldrazi atm - there are just too many bad matchups and bloody CoCo decks (Abzan, Knightfall and Elves) IMO habe pushed Eldrazi out of the meta.
New Nissa is exactly the type of card I'd like to test as a 'bomb' sb card for Eldrazi. Although my best bet is that it won't pan out - we wont know without a decent amount of testing.
I think the biggest thing is that the mana cost is scalable - often the 'go-to' bombs like Big Elspeth and World Breaker are just too expensive and come down to late (or not at all). New Nissa is good early and her ult (which can happen immediately late game) will often win you the game (sans lingering souls chumpers).
The thing is the +1 ability is def useful but maybe not strong enough - I guess asking for scry 2 and draw a card would be broken...Having said that we def can run out of gas and bottoming lands/dorks etc has merit..
My personal thoughts are that for a non-Eldrazi Bomb sb card we dont really want to go to even 5 cmc (let alone 6 cmc) - problem is we dont really have any good 4 cmc bombs that we can cast reliably - 4 cmc Gideon is WW and Tamiyo is 3 colours. I've seen Ajani Steadfast in a recent list - not sure its an improvement..
As Janusfcb said re. Eldrazi Tron - however like any deck we will still lose to their broken draws. However, on average Bant will beat Eldrazi Tron.
There was a discussion on bombs recently for grindy matchups - im not sure if we will ever get to a consensus - but yeah Nissa, Vital Force is def viable. I personally would prefer Vital Force over Sun's Champion if I had to choose one or the other due to the fact that it's far more likely that Vital Force will be cast while still relevant.
My concern with cards like Phantasmal Image and Metamorph is that they dont do anything on an empty board (and are also fragile to removal, anything will kill PI and Metamorph gives K Command a juicy target) - and thus I see them as generally as "win more" cards.
A question regarding Failure // Comply - it looks a bit too cute for my liking but Ive never played and would like to be convinced otherwise. Where do you find it has been most impactful? TitanShift it seems decent - perhaps against Ad Nauseum and Supreme Verdict?
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Life gain/burn options boil down to:
- Stubborn denial is prob the best counter - other counters are bit too expensive to be greatly impactful (but still side them in)
- Worship
- Blessed alliance
- Timely Reinforcements
- Thragtusk (usually a bit slow)
- Kitchen Finks
- Feed the Clan
- Life Goes On
- Chalice of the Void - im actually thinking of adding these to combat storm, burn, jeskai control, UW control, shadow
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
I used to play 4x Chalice when Infect was Tier 1 - I'm not totally convinced (but leaning that way) on Chalice but it def helps against Storm, other combo plus others (UW Control comes to mind) that Bant struggles against otherwise.
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Ok - if it works for you then more power to you.
Id suggest that chalice on zero will generally break the Affinity player - its pretty hard to lose if you get it down on the play turn 1. Most ppl would suggest that Chalice is only good against Affinity turn 1 on zero - thats certainly been my experience. Regardless of the above - Ill be playing chalice in Eldrazi moving forward as I think its necessary in the current meta (part of the reason the E-Tron is doing so well) - but def will play 4x copies..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
What decks are problematic on MTGO atm?
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Cage for CoCo/Chord
Pithing Needle (Naming Devoted Druid usually)
Rest in Peace
Surgical Extraction (Finks usually)
Dispel - for CoCo.Chord we dont really run this though - Stubborn denial (although erratically effective)
Explosives or any extra removal
Full disclosure - i'm not playing Bant Eldrazi atm - there are just too many bad matchups and bloody CoCo decks (Abzan, Knightfall and Elves) IMO habe pushed Eldrazi out of the meta.
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
I think the biggest thing is that the mana cost is scalable - often the 'go-to' bombs like Big Elspeth and World Breaker are just too expensive and come down to late (or not at all). New Nissa is good early and her ult (which can happen immediately late game) will often win you the game (sans lingering souls chumpers).
The thing is the +1 ability is def useful but maybe not strong enough - I guess asking for scry 2 and draw a card would be broken...Having said that we def can run out of gas and bottoming lands/dorks etc has merit..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
There was a discussion on bombs recently for grindy matchups - im not sure if we will ever get to a consensus - but yeah Nissa, Vital Force is def viable. I personally would prefer Vital Force over Sun's Champion if I had to choose one or the other due to the fact that it's far more likely that Vital Force will be cast while still relevant.
My concern with cards like Phantasmal Image and Metamorph is that they dont do anything on an empty board (and are also fragile to removal, anything will kill PI and Metamorph gives K Command a juicy target) - and thus I see them as generally as "win more" cards.
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver